The Democratic press. [volume] (Ravenna, O. [Ohio]) 1868-1901, 1887-07-14
EXCAVATIONS AT SUsA.
Wonderful Discoveries In the Ancient Cap
ital of Darius-A Notable Enterprise. =

| wonderful Discoveries In the Ancient Cap
ital of Darius-A Notable Enterprise.
We had reached u depth of nearly
fourteen feet without finding anything
except some fine funeral urns, covered
each with yound stone shoppers, each
| containing a skeleton, when the pick
| of one of the workmen all at once laid
bare bed of queer white-colored ma
terials which looked like agglomerated
concrete. Heaven be praised! One
side of these parallelopipedsw was coated
with colored enamel
The trench was directed parallel with
the facade of the palace, and the me-
thodical excavation continued for
about 200 feet, with breadth of 26
feet One month later we were able
to put together on the floor of our tent
the enamels composing magnificent
lions in low relief, each measuring six
feetin height and over eleven feet from
the tip of the nose to the end of the
tail. The animal stands out against
a turquoise blue background; the body
is white, the head surrounded by a
! sort of green victorine, the mustache
blue and yellow, the fianks white, the
belly blue . g..
To the right of the room it was easy
to see that there was an interruption
in the deposit of enamelled debris, in
dicating the position of vast entrance;
! finally the position of the bricks, and
of the unbaked clay walls against
which they were fixed, showed that the
lions, nine in number, had crowned a
] pylon and had fallen on to the paved
floor of the court, breaking the tiles
| situated below the enamelled bricks,
and leaving intact those which had not
borne the shock of the wall. Mixed
up with the bricks we found skeleton
| crushed by the fall of the masonry, a
marvellous opal seal which once be-
lOnged to Xerxes, a cone of carved
ivory, and thousand utensils.
These discoveries were the most i'm
portant of the whole campaign. The
east trenches, however, gave us some
entirely new information about the
ancient Notifications, and furnished
contingent of various objects, such
as spear-heads, tear bottles, bronze
and terra-cotta lamps, engraved stones,
bronze coins, and a series of funeral
urns arranged in files, and often one
row on the top of another.
The excavations alongside the py-
lOnes enabled US to find the base of the
surrounding wall and fortified door,
This opening was based, contrary to
the usage. on terra-cOtta foundations.
| Never, since the beginning of the ex-
cations, had we met with an ancient
wall built with similar materials, and
| Heaven knows how anxiOusly we had
sought for such precious guide.
| Monsieur Dieulafoy thought at once of
the palace of Darius, destroyed, ac,
cOrding to the account of Artaxerxes
| Muemon, in the reign of his great an
| cestOr-a palace of which the pave
ment had been found at another point
| He was not mistaken. All our efforts
were then concentrated on this part of
the excavations, and soon our work
men succeeded in taking out, frag-
ment by fragment, the frieze of arch
| ers, which in a few months the public
will be able to admire in the Louvre
| Museum.
The bricks composing this frieze,
unlike those of the lion, did not affect
the form of parallelopipeds. They
were fiat and square. and made of a
kind of concrete combining the white
ness of plaster with the hardness of
stone. The subject painted on the
| edge and treated with minute care was
very difficult to recompose. One day
we discovered a hand, the next day a
foot with a golden boot; finally the
enamels became abundant, and we
were able, aided by the continuity of
the subject and by the way it was cut
out into rectangular sections, to recon-
stitute parsonage forming part of a
bass-relief representing procession
| of archers.
The warriors are figured in profile
and marching; ON their shoulders rest
bow and an immense quiver; they
carry javelin terminating in silver
| pomegranate. The yestments are all
cut after the same pattern. They are
composed of robe slit in front, of
short shirt with long sleeves, drawn
in round the waist by belt, and a
round jacket closed over the breast.
A rich band of ornament trims the hem
of the garments. The stuffs are differ
ent. Some are golden yellow en-
broidered with blue and green daisies;
others have white ground, and bear
on black escutcheon a picture of the
citadel of Susa; sometimes the robes
are white, and covered with flowers
and stars set off by a black back.
ground; the shirt is black or yellow
the boots gold or blue. The archers
are crowned with a green torsade, and
bedecked with gold earrings and
bracelets Their skin Is black; the
eyes are drawn as if they were seen
full face; the nose is arched; the lips
thin, and narrowly edged with car.
mine. The curled beard is relatively
short; the hair is curly only at the end
The cuneiform inscriptions on the
enamel, which concern the archers
still contain, in spite of their mutila
ton, the name of DARIUS King" in
Persian, in Median, and in Assyrian
and tho following characteristic phrase
''Otana mama parsa" Ga Persian by the
name of Otanes). These fragment:
are very precious, for, in the absenct
of more precise archaeological infor
nation, they suffice to date the monu
ment.
The anthropological studies of Pro
fessor Houssay on the present inhabi
tants of Susiana, and the examination
of the well-preserved skeletons discov
cred in the funeral urns, Furthermore
tend to show that within the pas
eighteen hundred years the anatomi'
characteristics of the black races hav,
| DteH cOHllhudliy SiOWlhS WOohOL
though they may still be found in al
. the townfolk of Arabistan.
Besides these enamelled faiences, tn,
excavations of the palace of Darius
brought to light fragments of sculptur
on terra-cotta of very peculia
character. They are neither painte'
nor enamelled; their elementary form
have entirely lost any conventional
, character; and the ensemble OF the base
, relief is modelled with surprising skill
and ability, although the subjects al
, borrowed from the fantastic fauna o
/ Chaldea, Here it was wild beas
like those which are reproduced Ol
; the bass-reliefs of Persepolis; there
was bull represented in profile, am
| nevertheless with two divergent horns
, These animals were surrounded b.
| frieze covered with cuneifOrm tex
: engraved by hand on the edge of tn
, bricks. Some of the Inscriptions ar
: in Persian; others, written in Assyria
cursive characters. have some con
/ peetiop with Susian texts of the eight
' or ninth century B. @,
I Although the palace of Darius ha